Jenny McPherson had a bad feeling about the guy at the bar. Even at the end of the night, as he left with a cheerful wave and she was closing up, she had a knot in her stomach.
“I should have listened to my intuition,” she said. “But I knew my attacker, so I didn’t pay any attention.”
The man had slipped a drug into her drink and was waiting outside. And as she stepped out the door alone that night, he attacked and sexually assaulted her.
Seventeen years later, McPherson, 43, is finally coming to terms with the traumatic experience. In addition to working with the Rape Response Services program run through Penquis in Bangor and giving talks to groups such as the Spruce Run program for victims of abuse and domestic violence, she teaches self-defense to women of all ages.
During an upcoming six-week course at the Bangor YMCA, McPherson will be teaching the basics of Krav Maga, a form of self-defense developed for the men and women of the Israeli Defense Forces.
“It consists of the best moves from other martial arts forms, including boxing, wrestling, jujitsu, aikido and Muay Thai,” she said. “It’s the best and most effective form of self-defense, and it’s quick to learn.”
She started learning Krav Maga three years ago.
“I went to the first class, and I was hooked,” McPherson said. “I immediately felt really empowered, and I realized that if I could get through this training, I could get through anything.”
She’s still working on her black belt, but she’s been teaching the basic forms at her own studio on Hammond Street since last December. It’s well-suited for women, she said, including older women and petite women like her, because “it’s more about technique than brute strength.”
While some people sign up for a single session, the six-week class at the Y will offer a stronger grounding, McPherson said.
“You’ll get faster, your coordination will get better, and your muscle memory will be stronger,” she said.
Among McPherson’s former students is 68-year-old Edie Howland of Blue Hill, a homeopathic practitioner who met McPherson through a women’s business networking group.
“I’ve been practicing qigong and tai chi for years and thought I’d like to explore a different kind of martial art,” she said.
It wasn’t that she’s particularly concerned about self-defense, she said.
“I fervently hope I’m never in a situation where I need to use it … I never have been,” Howland said.
But the two-session training helped her develop more empathy for her clients who have been victims of violence, while also boosting her own self-confidence.
“It taught me to express myself in a way I haven’t before, to stand my ground with a kind of vigor I don’t usually show. I tend to be very mild-mannered,” Howland said.
Glen Kennedy, owner of the Eastern Maine School of Self-Defense in Veazie, said men and women of all ages benefit from training in self-defense. His instructors teach a range of martial arts disciplines, including karate, jujitsu and tai chi, which many people study and practice for years without ever needing to use them for self-defense. Long-term practice of these forms cultivates physical strength, coordination and flexibility, he said, as well as mental and psychological focus.
By contrast, effective self-defense can be learned in a few short sessions, he said. He’s got a two-session class coming up on the evenings of Nov. 4 and 11. Each session will meet for 90 minutes.
“It’s basically just boiled-down martial arts,” Kennedy said. “You’re learning the basic physical skills without the internal piece.”
In addition to learning to kick, strike, punch and grapple with an attacker, Kennedy said it’s essential to learn balance, anticipation and coordination.
“If you’re defending yourself, you can’t be concerned about being nice to your attacker,” he said.
That means letting go of any reluctance to injure someone else — including a domestic partner, a close acquaintance or even a stranger — and instead aim to disable an attacker so you can escape.
“If you’re in a dangerous situation, you want to end it as soon as possible,” Kennedy said.
Students in his self-defense classes explore a number of possible scenarios, including real and potential dangers in their own lives, and learn to make use of common implements such as car keys, credit cards and flashlights to injure and disable an attacker.
When it comes to handguns, knives and pepper spray, “we steer people away from any kind of weapon that someone can take away and use against them,” Kennedy said.
Both Kennedy and McPherson stress that the best strategy is to avoid dangerous situations, stay attentive to your surroundings, listen to your intuition and try to de-escalate emotional confrontations if possible. But when violence is unavoidable, they said, the basic tools of self-defense provide an advantage that might just save your life.
